Posts Tagged ‘EEOC’

With its recent announcement that it had entered into a National Mediation Agreement with Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc., the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is now helping more than 200 firms nationwide resolve disputes with their employees without going to court. The EEOC is charged with enforcing the harassment and discrimination statutes of [...]

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) prohibits the gathering of genetic information from employees or new hires unless such information  is deemed "job-related and consistent with business necessity." Another exception pertains to voluntary wellness programs, with the stipulation that the information obtained is kept confidential and not used in a manner that violates the Americans [...]

In a recent informal discussion letter, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) suggested that employers who maintain both personal health information (PHI) and occupational health information in a single employee file are probably violating the privacy provisions of both the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). Both acts severely [...]

In June the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held hearings on leave as a reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities, warning that inflexible company policies would incur EEOC legal wrath, and today that warning turned into reality as Verizon was forced to accept a $20-million settlement of a lawsuit over its hard-core absence policy. The [...]

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of a  disability and requires employers to accommodate a qualified individual’s physical or mental impairment in the workplace, unless such accommodation causes an undue hardship. All employers with 15 or more employees are subject to the ADA as enforced by [...]

Both the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1974 contain privacy protection for employees and their company-retained medical records, but a narrow exception in these acts allows for the release of such information if requested by a court order. However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in a recent [...]

In an approach similar to class-action lawsuits, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is now pursuing what it calls Class Charges—disability and age discrimination claims that deal with multiple employees in one location or spread out geographically. The institution of a Class Charge is simple enough: When employees file claims for disability or age discrimination [...]

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that it will publish its Final Rule implementing the ADA Amendments Act in the Federal Register tomorrow (March 25, 2011). The regulations recently cleared review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and have been praised by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as reflecting "a [...]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reportedly has approved the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed final regulations for the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA). The EEOC, if this is the case, is free to publish the final regulations in the Federal Register and begin enforcing their provisions after a stated period of time. The [...]

In addition to reporting a record number of discrimination charges during the last fiscal year (nearly 100,000), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) secured more than $400 million in monetary benefits from employers–the highest level of monetary relief ever obtained by the EEOC through its combined enforcement, mediation and litigation programs.    In order [...]